Reference

Today we will see what taking the red pill might look like from an energy management perspective...

This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back.
You take the blue pill—the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe.
You take the red pill—you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.
Remember: all I'm offering is the truth.

Nothing more.

Morpheus to Neo, The Matrix

When energy managers make tough choices it often revolves around what they know about and what they must learn.

A metaphor of knowing about an "Inconvenient Truth" and acting on energy waste fits reality well.

So presented with a means to know much more (and add to responsibilities thereby) we can imagine a Neophyte energy manager finding him or herself in a very different world than before they take the pill, bite the bullet, take the plunge or even eat from the Tree of Knowledge.

Imagine two of them side-by-side, each works for a retailer

(yes the data below is real but made anonymous and from two of the top ten UK retailers - by turnover).

They pop their pills, open their eyes (for the first time) and this is what they see:

(One chart above the other to fit the page)

Each coloured speck represents the record of gas consumption for a supermarket somewhere in the UK. Small blue specks that are densely clustered are normal and benign.

BIG RED PILLS are not!

Both energy managers have a few problems to sort out, and because they know how much they are wasting (based on seasonally adjusted precedent) on the y axis, and whether their gas consumption correlates to coldness (for heating) bottom axis (left = heating , right = cooling). They immediately know that some stores are behaving "purposefully", and some "consistently".

So this is the question - Would you want to know which colour your sites are ?

The trouble with information and yes it works for pub chains and utility companies, and schools and coffee shops is that it presents a choice.

Once it is out in the open, there is no putting it back in the box (Pandoras?) -
You can be accountable, or your sites can be held to account and you can either make things better or twiddle your thumbs.